We present in this article an analysis of the process of extension of fundamental education and of its impacts on early childhood education based on results of a study conducted between 2008 and 2010, whose object was to investigate this process in a municipal public school system of the State of São Paulo. The research, following a qualitative approach, was carried out in two elementary schools and one early childhood education school. The results show how, generally speaking, our current public policies have announced priority to the investments in fundamental schooling, without increasing their amount significantly, and how, at the same time, in the implementation of new measures, they disregard the school reality and fail to prepare it for the changes. Apart from the results of the study, this article also draws on the analysis of data coming from an undergraduate apprenticeship period conducted as part of the discipline of Early Childhood Education of a Pedagogy course at a public university of the State of São Paulo. Based then on the results of the research and on the analysis of apprentice periods, we discuss more specifically in this text how the extension of the fundamental education in this municipality, in the form it has taken place, has had negative impact on the pedagogical organization of early childhood education. We observe, for instance, that mechanical activities such as copying letters and numbers are been used more and more intensely under the argument that a preparation for fundamental education during pre-school is now even more necessary.